Such apparatus is used in industry in the form of tire uniformity measuring machines. Quality control of finished motor vehicle tires requires such equipment. By measuring the radial and lateral force fluctuations of the tire rolling under load, the uniformity of the tire can quickly be determined. One such tire uniformity measuring machine is described in the Hofmann Report 89 (September 1984). For performing the measurement run, the tire to be tested is mounted in a tire holding system comprising two measuring rim halves and is rolled along a test drum serving as the tire contact surface. With suitably embodied measuring equipment in the vicinity of the drum axis, force fluctuations resulting from nonuniformities of the tire can then be measured.
Eccentricities of the measuring rim system have been ignored in the measuring systems known until now. Such eccentricities generate radial force fluctuations which are transmitted through the tire to the test drum. Known measuring systems measure the total force fluctuations. These total fluctuations include both force fluctuations originating in the tire, and additionally, force fluctuations resulting from the eccentricities of the measuring rim system. Since the known measuring systems can not distinguish between tire fluctuations and measuring rim fluctuations, cases occur in which a tested tire, because of its uniformity, generates radial force fluctuations that are within an acceptable tolerance, yet, because of the component added by the eccentricities of the measuring rims, produces a measurement value that is outside the limit of tolerance. Thus, a uniform tire is rejected as being nonuniform because of error introduced by the measuring rims.